Calling All Would-Be Pilots: Freedom Flight Center Getting Off Ground

Oct. 21, 2008 | ROME,GA. Freedom Flight Center wants you. Executives announced plans to begin accepting flight students in two to three weeks at this week’s Rome Kiwanis Club meeting. CFO, David Wright presented an entertaining history of aviation, including the real story of Orville and Wilbur Wright – after a coin flip put Wilbur in the driver’s seat first that fateful morning, he wrecked and left Orville with the history making flight.  As he continued with tales of the aerial feats, it was easy to see just how much this man loves flying.

As he worked his way from the NC-5’s of the early twentieth century to the Super Sonic Transports of the 1960’s to the Cessnas of recent years, his military background fused with his obvious interest in economic development. After the “quantum leap” cockpit technology took in 2005 towards multifunction displays, “the same technology running the F-15, F-16, and F-22 is now going in and out of Rome everyday,” Wright said, “and we are going to need people to fly them, but we’ll also need folks to fix them and teach them. The possibilities for education, jobs, industry, and taxable funds are huge.”

Fred Barasoain, CEO,  said that the Rome airfield is in a unique position as the only one in the region with room around it for development, and plenty of it: “If a manufacturer wants to come to the Southeast and have access to air travel, they have to look at us; there’s no space left anywhere else in the region.” They plan to begin with just a few Cessnas and let the business grow to eventually become more than just a school, but also a pilot center for long-distance flyers and the place for aircraft rental, management, and maintenance of private planes.  The inevitability of a hangar is also on the horizon.

The center is mutually exclusive from the CVTC campus, although there’s an obvious symbiotic relationship between a flight center that will eventually need mechanics and a school training them.  The focus for now, though, is on flight school.  The rates will depend on exactly which model is settled on in the next week, although Barasoain said that someone could expect to pay $130-160 per hour for lessons, a price that is comparable to regional competitors.

Past Kiwanis Club President and Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce Chair-Elect, David Newby, heaped praise upon the entrepreneurial pair saying that they are “building on a vision to develop an under-utilized facility” and he hopes that the business community will support the endeavor.

Information can be found at www.freedomflightctr.com.

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The Kiwanis Club of Rome meets Mondays at Noon at the Forum:
www.romekiwanis.com